Jewish Emigration and the Changes in the Soviet Union

A changed situation in the Soviet Union has changed the terms of Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel. There is no longer communist tyranny in the Soviet Union; there is budding democracy and great hope for political and economic progress, and religion can be practiced freely. We are told that many of the immigrants to Israel are engineers, doctors, artists, and other professionals. Such people surely would have an opportunity to help build the new Russia.On grounds of both humanitarian need and US security interests, loan guarantees to the Soviet Union may well be more important than those to Israel. It seems clear that the vitality and survival of Israel will be best served by obtaining peace with its neighbors, thus freeing it to pursue economic growth and independence, and not by a spoiled and stultifying dependence on the United States. America should not allow itself to be deterred from this clear vision. Robert DeLong, Chapel Hill, N.C.

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